Pricey. Lower battery life than rivals. Hinge that converts system to different modes is overly complicated.

Bottom Line

The Acer Aspire R 13 is at the vanguard for convertible thin-and-light laptops. Its versatility, however, will cost you.

The Acer Aspire R 13 (R7-371T-72TC) ($1,499 as tested) is a high-end convertible-hybrid laptop with a very flexible screen design. Its versatility is a boon for those who make a lot of presentations, its screen works well in almost any situation that requires touch computing, and it handles video editing and viewing with aplomb. The B50 has a lot of high-end features and good performance numbers, but it'll cost you, given its list price that skims just under $1,500.

Design and Features
The Aspire R 13 is a thin and light iteration of Acer's Aspire convertible-hybrid laptop design, one that is a lot more portable and usable than the desktop-replacement Acer Aspire R7-572-6423 we looked at last year. It also evokes the construction of the Acer Aspire S7-392-5410, which pioneered the use of Gorilla Glass on both the screen and the top lid of the system.

The system measures about 0.7 by 13.5 by 9 inches (HWD), and weighs 3.21 pounds. That's somewhat larger and heavier than the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, our Editors' Choice high-end convertible-hybrid laptop, but as we'll see below, the Aspire R 13 has a more complicated hinge mechanism, which is more flexible, but adds a little more bulk. Its weight is still pretty good; it's lighter than the five-pound Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W-B5224.

The 13.3-inch, 2,560-by-1,440-resolution WQHD touch screen is made of indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). It flips around on its central axis, similar to the screen on the Dell XPS 12, though unlike the latter, the frame around the screen is U-shaped instead of a full surround. This allows for two more modes than most convertible-hybrid systems have. The screen can hang above the keyboard in Ezel mode, which gives you finer control of the viewing angle. Bring the screen down from Ezel mode to cover the keyboard deck to something Acer calls Stand mode, and you can then use the touch screen while still having access to the touchpad for finer cursor control if you prefer using touchpad-based gestures instead of touching the screen. It's a subtle difference from the Acer S7-392-5410, which still gave you access to the keyboard (but not the touchpad) in this mode.

The other modes are similar to the ones you get on the Lenovo Yoga line, where the screen acts as a tablet, tent, clamshell laptop, or can be flipped around in a touch/video watching mode. We're not sure everyone will favor the Ezel and Stand modes over the other four modes, but it does let you customize your experience more than the other convertibles. Thankfully, the hinge mechanism feels quite secure, even sturdier than the one in the Dell XPS 12. The screen is covered in Gorilla Glass 3 for stronger scratch resistance and optically bonded (directly attached to the glass) to reduce reflections.

The keyboard is more compact than the ones on other laptops. The row of function keys above the number keys is missing. Instead, you'll have to use Fn-key combinations in lieu of the F1-F12 keys, as well as for media functions and screen brightness. The flat keys are also more slippery than curved ones on the Lenovo Yoga line.

Connectivity is sparse, in part because the thin chassis has little room for physical connectors. You'll find the power plug, an SD card reader, and a USB 2.0 port on the right side. On the left, there are a HDMI port, a headset jack, a Kensington lock port, and two USB 3.0 ports. At least the HDMI port is full-size, unlike the micro-HDMI port on the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. The R 13 supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

There are 8GB of memory and a spacious 512GB solid-state drive (SSD). That means you'll have lots of space for video downloads or large music and photo libraries. That also adds to the bottom line, since this version of the Aspire R 13 is one of the priciest (the base model starts at $899.99). Thankfully, there are only a few pieces of bloatware on the system, including Flipboard, Fresh Paint, and Movie Moments. You'll also find the usual Office, OneDrive, and Skype tiles on the Start screen. The system comes with a standard one-year warranty.

Performance
The Aspire R 13 comes with an Intel Core i7-4510U processor with Intel HD Graphics 4400. As a result, it's significantly faster on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional (2,676 points), Handbrake (3:07), and Adobe Photoshop CS6 (4:19) tests than the Core M-equipped Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. It's more competitive with the Acer S7-392-5410, the Dell XPS 13 Touch, the Samsung Ativ Book 9 2014 Edition, and the Toshiba Kirabook 13 i7s Touch, our high-end ultrabook Editors' Choice, on the day-to-day and multimedia benchmark tests, which all come with ultrabook-class Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors as well. You should have no problem doing photo and video editing on the Aspire R 13. All of these systems are mediocre on the 3D tests, however, likely due to the lack of a discrete GPU.

Battery life for the Aspire R 13 is good, but not great, at least not by current standards. Six hours and 45 minutes on our battery rundown test means that you will get through most of the day before you need a recharge, but both the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (8:19) and the Toshiba 13 i7 Touch (8:44) will definitely get you through the day. The Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition bests all of those with 11:26 on the battery rundown test. The detachable-hybrid Toshiba Satellite Click 2 Pro P35W-B3226 (6:48) is the only other system in this lineup to quit short of the 7-hour mark.

Conclusion
The Acer Aspire R 13 (R7-371T-72TC) is at the vanguard for thin-and-light laptops that offer convertible screens. Its unique hinge gives you a little more versatility than the dual-hinge flipping displays of similar systems. You get good performance and lots of storage space, but the R 13 is expensive for what it offers, and battery life is hours short of its rivals. The Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro holds on to its Editors' Choice for high end convertible-hybrid laptops because of its longer battery life, smaller chassis, lighter weight, and higher-resolution (3,200-by-1,800) screen, all for $200 less.

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About the Author

Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel e... See Full Bio

Acer Aspire R 13 (R7-371T-72TC)...

Acer Aspire R 13 (R7-371T-72TC)

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